“The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have already cost taxpayers $314 billion, and the Congressional Budget Office projects additional expenses of perhaps $450 billion over the next 10 years. …’Osama (bin Laden) doesn’t have to win; he will just bleed us to death,’ said Michael Scheuer, a former counterterrorism official at the CIA who led the pursuit of bin Laden and recently retired after writing two books critical of the Clinton and Bush administrations. ‘He’s well on his way to doing it.’ ”
– James Sterngold, “Casualty of War: The U.S. Economy,” The San Francisco Chronicle, July 17, 2005